Hammond’s floaters in the key are a thing of beauty. He seems to consistently get them high enough to avoid taller defenders’ reaches, but still with some amazing touch.
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They are also, I think, a very important weapon against a team like SMC. Saint Mary’s uses its physical post presence to alter a lot of shots, and it’s not that effective to just run at their trees and try to contest at the rim. You have to do that some, sure, but how much success can you really expect to have against two strongly built 7-footers? But if Hammond (and now Sash a little) can hit quick floaters in the lane, it forces the big guys to come out just enough to have room for quick passes to a cutter down low, oops to Bukky where he’ll draw fouls, etc.
The SCU players who have seemingly had most success against SMC were always the ones with good touch a few feet from the basket: Brownridge, Carlos Marshall, Jr., Carlos Stewart, hopefully Hammond.
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Mahi as well. Not always floaters for him but mid range jumpers off the dribble and turnaround jumpers after post back downs.
I was really impressed with the second half defense, and agree about Graves’ increasing impact. I like him coming off the bench as he adds scoring to the second unit; he plays with more control than Bukky on both sides of the floor, and last night had 8 more minutes.
Add: I see a great future for Cochrane.
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If you want to read a very long piece on Graves as an NBA prospect…I thought it was well done other than referring to Santa Clara as “University of Santa Clara.”
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